Mazama columnist Shelley Smith Jones was right about the pine cones of abundance this year. I used a snow shovel to clear them from around our house. Not just any snow shovel, but the “Big Scoop Pusher” from Ace Hardware. It’s like a snowplow without the combustible engine.
Every time the season changes, I say, “Oh! This season is my favorite season!” Which is not possibly true because I looked up the adjective form of “favorite” in the dictionary and the definition was, “preferred before all others of the same kind.” Technically speaking, every single season cannot feasibly be a favorite season. What is really happening here is that I do not have a favorite season, I am just done with the previous season and ready to move on to the next season.
Adjectives themselves are a slippery slope. In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Atticus Finch tells Scout, “Delete the adjectives and you’ll have the facts.” Mark Twain was less generous in his advice for using adjectives, “when you catch an adjective, kill it.”
Spring is a great time to appreciate the resiliency of the Methow Valley’s native plants.
Adjectives aside, the flowers of spring are blooming and the sunlight is boosting serotonins. I am not a forager, but I have a vested interest in food security and the knowledge of how early communities grew and harvested food within the native landscape. I’ve heard the Methow Valley referred to as a place of abundance — a garden from the headwaters of the Methow to the Columbia. Since learning about traditional native foods, I view the spring blossoms with a deeper sense of wonder.
Two reliable harbingers of spring are the bitterroot and arrowleaf basalmroot. These delicate flowers bloom in dry rocky soil on exposed hillsides. No one waters or nurtures these flowers and yet they show up every spring without fail. No wonder these two resilient plants are celebrated in native communities.
Spring beauties carpet shady areas of the lush forest floor. The roots at the base of this tiny floral are eaten as a potato. Glacier lilies too, are gathered as root vegetables. Lomatium fronds are a flavorful herb in the parsley family, and the roots were ground into flour.
A trip to Peru years ago introduced me to lupine legumes, roasted in a salad. Entire hillside terraces were filled with the fragrant flowers grown for their legumes. There are many varieties of lupine, some are toxic and not all lupine were edible. However, they do smell quite nice and are pleasant to walk through.
In my yard, I saw a lone dandelion dancing from side to side. Upon closer inspection, a rubber boa was attempting to devour a baby garter snake. The garter put up a fair fight, tightly wrapping its tail around the stem of the dandelion and holding on for dear life. An epic tug of war ensued — dandelions are good for more than just feeding pollinators and making salad greens.
On Sunday, June 7, at 1 p.m., author and podcaster Ashley Ahearn and her horse Boo will be in the Circle Park Garden of The Methow Store. Ashley will read from her book about Boo, “The Little Black Mustang,” and Boo will be standing by waiting for pats and scritches. When Ashley first rescued Boo, she spent weeks building his trust by reading him books. The store will have snow-cones, popcorn, and light lunch faire.
